The Chip Wagon

Where Did it All Go Wrong? The Rise and Fall of Chip Kelly

I apologize for what was a very quiet 2015 NFL season at the Chipwagon this past year. There are a couple reasons for that. 1) I started a new job in September and it has been pretty demanding of my time and balancing that with the family life didn't leave a lot of time left to put blog posts together. 2) Watching the 2015 season was one of the worst and most frustrating seasons I can recall watching. I realize that this was far from one of the worst seasons in Eagles history, but from beginning to end it was just so frustrating and aggravating to watch. We had lapses in execution all season long and Chip's offense that I loved so much in 2013 and 2014 just went completely stale.  The truth is, there is no one reason why things didn't work out in Philadelphia. Certainly, Chip the GM, Chip's personality, the power struggle with Howie Roseman and his apparent fractured relationship with Jeff Lurie will lead the way in the headlines. Our old friend @sheilkapadia was spot on this assessment which really nicely summarized the downfall of the Kelly regime. However, to look at it from another angle, one really needs to understand that Lurie's decision was not exclusively a non-footbal decision. To put it bluntly, the Chip Kelly we fell in love with just stopped showing up on the chalkboard in 2015. The offense we saw in 2015 was a stripped down version of what we saw in 2013 and 2014 and lacked any imagination, creativity or evolution as defenses around the league continued to adjust and catch up. Furthermore, it seemed in 3 years Chip Kelly's offense lacked some of the fundamental concepts and philosophies that need to be considered and applied in the pro game. Here is my post-mortem and likely final chapter on Chip Kelly's offense.

A Momentary Sigh of Relief but QB Struggles Continue

Let me first start by saying that it's great to get the first win. Especially combined with a Cowboys loss. The defensive play was very encouraging and Darren Sproles gave us another instant classic on STs. All I can say is thank the Pope that the defense and STs unit showed up. We'll have more on the running game a bit later once the All-22 comes out. Lots of interesting stuff mixed in and it was great to see so much outside zone eventhough the execution remains a hair off. But let's get right down to it. I'm generally not the guy who dumps on the team after a much needed win, I'll generally take wins anytime I can get it. But I have bigger aspirations for this team than simply a title in a crappy NFC East and a playoff appearance. It was widely acknowledged that the biggest thing Chip Kelly needed to get this team over the hump was a franchise QB. Unfortunately, Sam Bradford continues to NOT look the part. 

Execution? Yes. But How Much is Scheme to Blame?

For the past two weeks, most of this blog's content has been focused on the poor execution of the offensive personnel. This jives with most of what everyone else is saying. The other popular narrative is that Chip's magical innovations have worn off and the entire NFL has caught up. While there may some truth to that, I think it's mostly lazy reporting from the usual analysts who would rather go for the headline grab instead of hunkering down and trying to dig deep down to see where the real issues lie. 

Let me start by saying that I truly believe the biggest issue of the 2015 offense so far has been execution. And it's not just on the questionable starters Barbre and Gardner. As we've shown, the veterans are making tons of mistakes. We've shown numerous examples of where, if the personnel just did their jobs the way they were assigned, the offense would look a lot better. I wish I could say that that's all it is, but I have major reservations about Sam Bradford and we'll have to wait for a bit of a larger sample size to make radical conclusions there. But is it really that simple? Does it really come down to just execution, or does Chip, for the perhaps the first time in his NFL tenure, have to take a long, hard look in the mirror and see if the problem lies within the schemes and gameplans he, Shurmur and others have drawn up thus far in 2015. I do believe that time has come because some of the decisions Chip has made in regards to personnel and scheme just aren't making much sense to me. I thought I'd share a few thoughts heading into the Jets game. 

The Philosophy and Evolution of the Eagles Run Game Part 11- Foles vs. Bradford; Same Old Scheme, Same Old Compromises

I’ve been looking forward to getting to this post as I think it really brings us full circle in this series when talking about the philosophy and evolution of the Eagles run game. We started this series by talking about why the Eagles run so much out of the shotgun formation. The reason is arithmetic by nature. By running from Shotgun, the offensive line can leave a backside edge defender unblocked thus gaining a blocker on the playside. Furthermore, because the QB is in shotgun he can “read” that unblocked defender and make a decision that always makes the defender wrong. If he collapses down on running back, the QB keeps and runs through the spot the edge defender vacates. If he stays put to protect the backside he hands off and the Eagles getting a blocking advantage on the playside. Of course this advantage and philosophy only goes so far when you have a QB who isn’t really a major threat to run.

The Philosophy and Evolution of Eagles Run Game Part 9- Counters and Crackbacks

In Part 8 we focused on the number of ways the Eagles mix up their formations as to not give away the playside direction of the run. One of the examples was lining the QB under center with the running back directly behind him, thus not dictating the direction of the run play. In addition to this wrinkle, the Eagles liked to run counter from this formation. They absolutely destroyed the New York Giants in the first game with this concept.

There are several main elements with the counter play off inside zone. The OL blocking assignments are essentially the same as inside zone. The image below shows that the Eagles will block inside zone to the right. Standard zone blocking: